Galaxy S25 vs. Xiaomi Redmi 10 - CAMERA quality

[ValB50]

Today I did the focus chart test and compared the S25 camera to the Xiaomi Redmi 10, a phone released in August 2021 for around 200€. I can’t stress enough how bad the S25’s photos look compared to the Redmi 10, especially the 0.6x ultrawide camera on the Redmi 10 looks much better and clearer compared to the S25’s 0.6x ultrawide. This can’t be true, right? What the hell is wrong with the S25’s camera??? 😟😧

I'm also concerned because I noticed in GSMArena's review of the Galaxy S25 that their unit was plagued by some kind of lens misalignment issue as also noted on their YouTube video.

This is a follow up of my testing comparing the Galaxy S25 to the Huawei Mate 9. Discussions and photo tests were also conducted on the other Samsung community forum post.

[arianwen27]

Ah, this is something separate. There's an app on the samsung store called camera assistant. It's part of good lock. It adds extra camera settings. Eg, it's where you find prioritise focus over speed.

[ValB50]

Other people are happy with the camera on their S25? Really? If you request, I can find many others who are not happy with their S25. 😆

I've purchased the phone from the biggest telecommunications company in the country. The absolute last thing I would do is send it to a repair shop. They'll scuff it and the adhesive won't be as good as it came from the factory. I've sadly dealt with them before...

[arianwen27]

Then why does "focus enhancer" exist? On the ultra phone, close up shots swap to the ultra wide camera as it can focus much closer than the main camera.

Forcing my phone to use the main camera for close shots, I see similar results

[Star_girl]

I did not argue why focus enhancer exists on the Ultra, I just said the S25 should be able to take good closed up pictures if you keep it still.

[ValB50]

Yes, I already noted the GSMArena review in my other post.

[Star_girl]

Like I said, customer satisfaction is objective, also base model is not the same as Plus or Ultra, which cost more because they have more features.

[arianwen27]

Yeah, and it does. The main point here is the edges of the image. The further from the centre the more blur there is. The 2021 phone doesn't do that very much. I'm saying samsung optimised the camera for longer distance shots, sacrificing close up shots. Focus enhancer was their solution to make close up shots good again

[arianwen27]

For camera focus. The phone doesn't really have focus calibration. It looks at the image, if it's blurry, it adjusts the lens. It does this till it finds the least blurry spot. I guess you could say it calibrates focus for each shot but it doesn't save calibration data.

If you ever see the camera pulse in focus, thats it going from focus out all the way to focus in trying to find the perfect spot.

Oh and the s25 and + version should have the exact same cameras. Meaning the same ultra wide sensor. The ultra is the only one with a better ultra wide

[Star_girl]

Yes. Also extra wide lense and Telephoto lense on the more expensive phones make a difference. Sometimes they should let the physical camera do it's job without software processing and than let the customer use the zoom for the best shot.
That's interesting because a lot of people use the zoom on any phone to take close up pictures of further objects or landscapes.

[ValB50]

I will take the phone to the store where I bought my S25 and compare it to a display showroom model. I know they have a silver shadow one. Even planning this trip makes me very angry. I paid over 900€ for this thing and it's giving me a headache.